Just a Matter of Time
With the Mitchell report coming out today in regards to drug use in baseball, I thought it would be relevant to discuss something that I feel is just a matter of time: drug use in basketball.
If you look at old players pictures they rarely looked the part of Karl Malone or Shaq for that matter and it has to bring up some questions. Are basketball players on the ‘juice’ as well? The answer statistically has to be yes they are, but we don’t have any solid proof yet. Any time this much money is involved and substances are out there that can help people obtain that money we’ll have a major issue on our hands. Let’s look at it from a baseball player perspective. One good year can get someone a big time contract and those contracts are guaranteed. Is that different in basketball? No, if I’m Bonzi Wells and I want that one big last contract and steroids can bring back some of my youth then I would be very tempted to do that and a lot of us would.
Jason Giambi got a great big contract from the Yankees and hasn’t been the same since. We know he did steroids. Gary Matthews Jr was listed today and its no surprise he had a miracle year 2 years ago to earn his big payday with the Angels. These can’t come as a surprise to us. Players may have some regrets when they are caught later but that money can cure a lot of problems. It doesn’t cure questions about one’s integrity and character however.
Is basketball next? I think it is. I think just on the horizon the NBA will have it’s own Jose Canseco to jump start talk about the league and steroids or any performance enhancer for that matter. Remember that one of the purposes for the HGH or steroids was to help heal the body and basketball can be a very grueling sport. I understand the argument that players use weight training now where they didn’t in the past and all that, but genetics are genetics and I don’t buy that excuse in every case. I think we are only fooling ourselves if we believe it isn’t going on in the NBA right under our noses.
December 16th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
We’re talking about a league with an 82 game season. Players break down all the time. If it isn’t being used to “bulk up” I would imagine it is at least being used to recover from injuries. A guy goes down for a lengthy period of time as a result of a leg or knee injury. He wants to recover and get back as soon as possible. You can’t tell me there aren’t some brands of “flaxseed” out there that wouldn’t help that. It has to at least be used in that regard. It seems like you can find a doctor to sign off on any kind of “medication” as long as the price is right. It HAS to be a part of the NBA.